Do a good deed and throw it into the sea. — Egyptian proverb

The first time I met former Prime Minister Edward Seaga in a one-on-one setting was in 2014 at his office at The University of the West Indies, Mona, where he served as an honorary distinguished fellow at the professorial level in the School for Graduate Studies and Research after his retirement from active politics. He and I talked for about 30 minutes on various matters, but predominately the political happenings in the country. I found him supremely engaging, quick-witted, pragmatic and visionary.

I had the privilege of subsequent meetings with him and I interviewed him on radio in 2017.

Seaga loved Jamaica dearly. His devotion to this country was unflinching. He was a colossus in our politics and a faithful son of Jamaica. Notably, Seaga was not born in Jamaica. He gave up his American citizenship voluntarily and committed his life to this country. He immersed himself in Jamaican culture, starting with his research in Buxton Town, St Catherine, and worked tirelessly to uplift the vulnerable, poor and dispossessed. It is a matter of public record that it was Seaga who started the ‘Food Aid Programme’ locally in 1983. Under the programme, schoolchildren received a high-protein lunch daily; pregnant and nursing mothers and the indigent got food stamps to assist with some of their dietary needs. “It was Seaga, who launched the concept of The Golden Age Home locally in the 1960s. A prototype home was built in 1985, a second was constructed in an inner-city community in 1988.” ( Profile of Edward Seaga, p 5)

The late prime minister of Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew once remarked that, “A true leader thinks what his country can become 100 years in the future and sets in motion structures to achieve his vision.” The objective evidence proves that this is what Seaga set out to do from the moment he formally entered political life.

Some years ago I wrote in this newspaper that Seaga should be honoured with the title of national hero. I have not recoiled from that position. Seaga built more functional institutions than any of our prime ministers. He rescued this country from the clutches of Michael Manley’s democratic socialism in the 70s, and restored respect for Jamaica at home and abroad.

Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher encapsulated her motivation for entering politics, as against some of her peers, this way: “It used to be about trying to do something. Now it’s about trying to be someone.”

There are many in our politics today who do not have the genuine improvement of the lives of our people as priority number one. Their singular focus, seemingly, is self-enrichment by near any means necessary. This is wrong.

“Papa Eddie’s” life’s work demonstrated, without any doubt, that his mission was always the building of a better Jamaica. This is a lesson we must never forget as we examine his many contributions. His famous “haves and have-nots” speech in 1961 announced that he was a man on a mission to move Jamaica forward, and quickly. From there he set out to build institutions that would match the multi-developmental needs of ordinary Jamaicans for generations.

Some of Seaga’s achievements

Renowned American economist and social theorist Thomas Sowell once opined that: “Talkers are usually more articulate than doers, since talk is their specialty.” Seaga was a doer, not a talker.

Let’s look at what he did. Starting with financial institution building, the lifeblood of any economy, Seaga started Jamaica Stock Exchange (1968), Jamaica Development Bank (1969), decimalisation of the Jamaican currency (1969), introduction of merchant banking in Jamaica (1969), Jamaica Mortgage Bank (1972), National Development Bank (1981), Agricultural Credit Bank (1981), National Investment Bank of Jamaica and Export-Import Bank (1986), JAMPRO [formerly Jamaica National Investment Promotion Limited] (1987), Digiport [first satellite telecommunications data processing operations], and the Self Start Fund (1984).

Seaga and the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) built the National Arena in 1963; established Things Jamaican in 1963; student revolving loan fund for higher education (1970); Jamaica Racing Commission and Jockey School (1972); Golden Age Homes for the elderly poor; and Programme for Advancement of Early Childhood Education; built residential halls for The University of the West Indies and University of Technology, Jamaica; HEART (now HEART Trust/National Training Agency) in 1982; establishment of the Office of the Contractor General (proposed in 1979) in 1983.

His contributions to legislation not timetabled and dictated by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have helped to improve the lives of thousands of ordinary Jamaicans. This is a matter of public record.

Seaga should be forever credited for his unrivalled magnanimity when, after the 1983 General Election (which was uncontested by an unprepared People’s National Party [PNP]) he did not use his Administration’s total control of the Senate and the House of Representatives for raw political advantage. He could have changed the constitution of the country to the eternal advantage of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP). He did not. Instead, he appointed independent senators and demonstrated statesmanship.

Compare Seaga’s actions with those of Michael Manley and Manley’s clandestine use of his constitutional powers to declare a year-long state of emergency in 1976 to secure political victory in the general election that year. This was one of the main findings of the Smith Commission of Enquiry which investigated the sordid 1976 State of Emergency. Yet, it was Seaga who was labelled as a tyrant and characterised as despotic by many in our local media for decades.

Admittedly, former Prime Minister Edward Seaga was not the most loved — or even liked — prime minister since Independence. Why? I believe that, generally, we are a people who believe in form over substance, announcements over achievements, ostentatiousness over pragmatism, and pretence over functionality.

There is a raft of evidence that Seaga was a victim of deliberate demonisation by elements in the local media acting in cahoots with some in the PNP.

Of course, it is also true that he sometimes provided cannon fodder for his enemies. Racist motivations, deep-seated resentment for Seaga’s achievements, and groupthink are among the major reasons he has been unfairly disliked. There is plenty of credible scholarship to support me in this respect.

Mauled by the media

I believe history, with the big ‘H’, will be much kinder to Edward Seaga than those who wrongfully feathered and tarred him. Their overt and covert dirty campaign against Seaga did not succeed in thwarting his development agenda.

One of the most egregious lies systematically told about Seaga is that he was anti-Caricom, anti-Caribbean, and silent on apartheid in South Africa. The facts say the complete opposite. Check this: “It was Seaga who founded the Caribbean Democratic Union (CDU) of the International Democratic Union (IDU), the international body of Christian democratic political parties. He was president of the CDU and vice-president of the IDU until he retired from these positions.” ( Profile of Edward Seaga, p 21)

Seaga addressed the General Assembly of the United Nations in 1985 and made the memorable call for an intensified attack on the South African rand to reduce its value.

In October 1987, at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Vancouver, he demonstrated statistically that sanctions were working against South Africa and successfully pressed for continued Commonwealth support.” ( Profile of Edward Seaga, p 21)

As a matter of fact, Dr Kenneth D Kaunda, former president of the Republic of Zambia, in commenting on Seaga’s resoluteness against apartheid in South Africa, said: “I have listened to you contribute to the discussions at our summits. Each time you have left me impressed, indeed. Your contributions on sanctions against South Africa was simply superb. Jamaica should be proud to have you as its prime minister.” [dust jacket; Edward Seaga, My Life and Leadership, Volume 2, Hard Road to Travel, 1980-2008]

As a builder and facilitator of cultural institutions Seaga is matched by few: Jamaica Festival (1963), return of Marcus Garvey’s remains to Jamaica (1964), several museums inclusive of the Arawak and Port Royal (1965-1969), introducing National Heritage Week (1968), Creative Production and Training Centre (1971), and the Media Divestment Programme to establish several small, private radio and church television stations.

In 1966 he spearheaded the redevelopment of the Kingston waterfront; 1967, reclamation and development of the Ocho Rios waterfront; creation of the Urban Development Corporation in 1968; National Committee for Drug Abuse, 1983; Metropolitan Parks and Markets (now National Solid Waste Management Authority); redevelopment of Bloody Bay in Negril; and a comprehensive redevelopment of many rural towns.

His work, worth and influence did not stop there.“It was Seaga, who transformed the country’s worst slum, Back-o-wall” into a modern, low-income residential community, renamed Tivoli Gardens. This development pioneered the use of high-rise buildings as a solution to rehousing the densely populated inner slums, which succeeded in changing the face of the west Kingston area by not taking a man out of the slum, but the slum out of the man.” ( Profile of Edward Seaga, p 5)

Respect, home and abroad

These snippets testify to the broad-based respect that Seaga earned at the local, regional and global political levels.

* Professor Rex Nettleford, former vice chancellor at The University of the West Indies said, “I, myself, have known another dimension of this public figure who once insisted he was not into ‘popularity’, but whose public life has contributed in no small or insignificant way to genuinely popular concerns, beginning with his ‘haves and have-nots’ speech in the old Legislative Council, and echoed in Parliament only this past week.” ( The Gleaner, January 23, 2005)

* Ronald Reagan, president of the United States, 1981-1989: “It’s been said here, and it’s true, Mr Prime Minister, you were the first head of State to visit us in the White House after my inauguration. From the beginning I felt a special sense of closeness and common purpose with you. Your election was only one week before my own, and we were both given mandates to restore economic health to our respective nations and to secure the freedom which is so dear to us all.”

* P J Patterson, former prime minister of Jamaica: “Both qualitatively and quantitatively, and I am prepared to risk the accusation of prophecy in the regard, the innings of Edward Phillip George Seaga will not be replicated.” (January 18, 2005, Jamaica’s Parliament)

* BBC News: “As minister of welfare and development after 1962, he helped transform one of Kingston’s worst slums into the planned community of Tivoli Gardens, which is now the JLP’s power base. As finance minister after his party’s 1967 election win, he helped develop local financial institutions, including the Jamaica Development Bank, and supervised the transfer of foreign-owned companies to local ownership. (October 16, 2002)

* Dr Carl Stone, eminent Jamaican professor of political sciences: “I don’t think there is any other in the post-war Caribbean who has built, and left as monuments for posterity, so many institutions and so many new beginnings, and so many ideas in the sphere of public management… I have a deep respect for Seaga, unlike most of my colleagues, but he is probably too far ahead of his time. I think he represents the future. I see him as a sort of Caribbean Lee Kuan Yew… I think history will record him as the most significant influence.”

And, I could go on and on.

Our former prime minister’s work is also recognised locally and internationally, which has seen him receiving a number of prestigious awards. These include the Dr Martin Luther King Jr Humanitarian Award in 1984; the Pan American Development Foundation Inter-American Man of the Year Development Award in 1983; and the Gleaner Honour Awards: Man of the Year for 1980 and 1981. Seaga was also conferred with several honorary degrees by the University of Miami, and Boston University in the United States, among others. This is an abbreviated list.

One of Mr Seaga’s great loves was education. We would do well to burn into our collective consciousness the immediacy of this quote by him: “If you are not educated, you going to be poor. If you not educated, you going to be illiterate. If you not educated, you can’t function in the society anyway. And, because of that, you will turn away from the regular jobs and resort to crime.” (November 26, 2017, JLP annual conference)

Walk good, Edward Philip George Seaga. You played a great inning for Jamaica and the Caribbean in particular.